Parents anticipate additional financial burdens due to reliance on coaching and guidebooks following curriculum revisions
Published : 18 Jan 2025, 02:10 AM
As the new academic year kicks in, Mahi Shahriar Shourav, a diligent seventh grader at Banasree Ideal School and College, dives headfirst into multiple coaching classes across several subjects.
His mother Fazilatun Nahar Shammi, with a watchful eye on the horizon, anticipates the necessity for further tutoring in other disciplines. She has braced for this to significantly hike up their educational budget.
Shammi told bdnews24.com, "Coaching wasn’t essential for most subjects under the new curriculum for sixth grade last year, though I did send him for a few. With the return of the old curriculum, I’ve decided to enroll him in coaching for almost every subject right from the start of seventh grade."
When asked about the financial impact, she said:, "Given the current economic situation, our education expenses are bound to increase. A significant amount of money will be spent on coaching for all subjects."
The recent curriculum changes have sparked concerns about rising educational costs.
Experts and institutions focusing on the country's education system believe that reverting from the “experience-based” curriculum to the “rote learning” model from a decade ago will push students towards coaching and guidebooks, driving up expenses.
They caution that this reliance on coaching and guidebooks could strain parents financially, potentially leading to higher dropout rates among students.
FEAR OF INCREASED DROPOUT RATES
The curriculum from 2012, which has once again been implemented, faced criticism for its dependence on coaching centres and guidebooks.
In 2016, the Ministry of Education reported that this curriculum, formulated a decade ago, had fostered a Tk 300 billion market for coaching and guidebooks.
With the return of this curriculum, various non-governmental organisations, or NGOs, fear that increased educational expenses and inflation will lead to a rise in dropout rates.
Education researchers have urged for measures to liberate students from the expenses of coaching and guidebooks.
They suggest enhancing the living standards and training of teachers to make them more competent and committed, alongside improving facilities in educational institutions.
The National Curriculum and Textbook Board, or NCTB, responsible for overseeing the curriculum, also sees the necessity of structural changes to transform classrooms into the primary learning centres, aiming to reduce the extra expenses on coaching and guidebooks.
This includes improving teachers' living standards and the educational environment.
In 2023, a new curriculum was introduced for one primary grade and two secondary grades.
The former government's education ministry had repeatedly claimed that the “experience-based” curriculum would reduce the reliance on coaching and guidebooks.
However, research has shown that the 2012 curriculum led to increased expenses for students due to their reliance on coaching and guidebooks.
According to the Education Watch Report 2022 by the Campaign for Popular Education, approximately 85 percent of eighth and ninth-grade students required private tuition in 2022.
That year, 79 percent of primary students and 82.5 percent of secondary students used guidebooks for their lessons and exam preparations.
Analysing data from 2022, the Education Watch Report 2023, published in March 2024, revealed that the annual average family expenditure on education for a fifth-grade student in primary school was Tk 13,882, and for a ninth-grade student, it was Tk 27,340.
A significant portion of these expenses was for coaching and guidebooks.
The report also highlighted that in the first six months of 2023, the educational expenses for fifth-grade students increased by 25 percent, and for ninth-grade students, it rose by 51 percent.
The 2012 curriculum was reinstated in fifth and ninth grades in 2023, while a new curriculum was implemented from the beginning of the year for first grade in primary and sixth and seventh grades in secondary education.
The interim government, which assumed power on Aug 5 following a political shift, announced that the "new curriculum is not feasible" and that the country will return to the 2012 curriculum until a revised version is finalised.
In 2025, students are receiving textbooks based on this curriculum.
Rasheda K Choudhury., executive director of the Campaign for Popular Education and reviewer of the Education Watch Report 2023, expressed concerns to bdnews24.com that the implementation of the 2012 curriculum this year would increase educational expenses.
She said, "The new generation aspires to progress towards an equitable Bangladesh. Can we move forward by looking back? Over 70 percent of the expenses in the 2012 curriculum were out-of-pocket. How can we achieve an equitable Bangladesh with such costs?"
Describing the return to the previous curriculum as a “step backward,” she added: "That curriculum was heavily reliant on coaching. I see no rationale in reverting to it. A curriculum needs to progress through a continuous reform process. The one we had was introduced with the aspirations of a rejuvenated nation. It could have been reformed rather than hastily scrapped, leaving us further behind."
"The reliance on coaching and guidebooks could increase dropouts," Rasheda warned.
"I'm afraid of two things: child labour will rise, given the severe inflation, and early marriages will increase. If a girl is married off, the parents won't have to bear her expenses."
RISING EDUCATION COSTS DUE TO ‘COMPETITION’
Education researchers believe that it is not just the curriculum, but also inadequate education in classrooms and the competitive mindset of parents, which is driving up the cost of education for students.
Prof Mohammad Ali Jinnah of the Institute of Education and Research at Dhaka University said, “Sudden changes in education, especially for political reasons, create a crisis in education. There have been obstacles in the previous curriculum’s implementation, leading to criticism. Were schools prepared for its implementation? Was the teacher training provided adequate?”
“When classrooms fail to fully enable students to grasp the education, parents resort to coaching notes and guides. To ensure effective education, schools and teachers must be developed. This requires improving teachers' living standards, providing effective training, and supplying educational materials in schools. Above all, the education budget must be increased,” he added.
He pointed out that there is a sense of competition among parents regarding results or good grades, which is often relevant since good grades expand opportunities for students in higher education. Coaching institutes assist in this regard.
“If we do not improve schools and teachers, this issue will persist,” he said.
Prof Mohammad Abdul Halim, former director of the same institute, said: “Bringing frequent changes in education policy is undesirable as it leaves students in a state of uncertainty. Moreover, introducing such changes for political reasons is also unwarranted.”
‘TEACHERS’ LIVING STANDARDS MUST IMPROVE’
To curb coaching, NCTB Chairman Prof AKM Reazul Hassan emphasised the need to restructure textbooks and change the question format.
He said, “To stop the reliance on coaching guides, the content of textbooks needs to be restructured in a way that different types of questions can be derived from them. Questions must be designed so that they are not predictable. This will reduce the dependency on coaching guides and give more emphasis to textbooks.”
“We have zero tolerance for coaching guides. The government is also strict about banning them. We have written to the education ministry to take action, and district and Upazila administrations have been directed to conduct operations against coaching guides. Some actions have already been taken,” he added.
Prof Reazul also said, “To stop coaching, teachers’ living standards must be improved, and salaries should be increased. This will allow teachers to spend more time with students at school. If we can reduce class shifts to a single shift, teachers will be able to spend more time teaching students, and coaching dependence will decrease.”
EDUCATION ADVISOR'S VIEW
Education Advisor Wahiduddin Mahmud said, "The cost of attending coaching classes will increase. However, if teachers are sincere in classrooms, this issue will not arise.”
When asked about improving teachers' living standards to reduce coaching classes, the education advisor said: “At present, we cannot immediately increase teachers’ salaries, but I personally believe that efforts must be made to improve their living standards.”
In a recent event, he explained the reasons for returning to the previous curriculum, saying that it had several serious flaws, such as not offering advanced mathematics and science for grades nine and ten.
He also remarked that returning to the old curriculum would attract criticism.
[Writing in English by Arshi Fatiha Quazi]